” The new Kolumba Art Museum designed by Peter Zumthor transfers the sum of the existing fragments into one complete building.”

peter zumthor, kolumba art museum

peter zumthor, kolumba art museum

peter zumthor, kolumba art museum

” The warm grey brick of the massive building unite with the tuffs, basalt and bricks of the ruins. Inside the building a peaceful courtyard takes the place of a lost medieval cemetery. The sixteen exhibition rooms possess the most varying qualities with regard to incoming daylight, size, proportion und pathways. What they all have in common is the reduced materiality of the brick, mortar, plaster and terrazzo in front of which will appear the works of art.”

Porcupine, a collaboration between New York based architect Eduardo Benamor Duarte and Caterina Tiazzoldi, is a chair designed explicitly for hotel lobbies, restaurants, airports and other waiting areas.

The chair is parametrically generated from a logic inspired by the fractal growth of a shell and different versions of it can be produced to precisely fit a room.

The whole thing is surfaced in felt without any crossbracing. The felt, however, is reinforced from the inside with fiberglass.

porcupine

porcupine

The prototypical version of the chair was designed for the reception space of the Altis Hotel in Lisbon.

In the summer of 2007, Localarchitecture and architect Danilo Mondada were awarded the contract to renovate the mother house of the Deaconess Community of St-Loup.

Localarchitecture, which has a special interest in timber construction and new structural solutions, has been exploring traditional and contemporary wood construction techniques. The architects suggested workin in partnership with Hani Buri & Yves Weinand and the team developed a structure using timber panels, which makes it possible to cover large areas with fine sections. The shape was generated using computer software that calculates the load-bearing structure, determines the dimensions and transmits this information to the machine that cuts out the 6-cm thick timber panels.

chapel for the deaconesses of st-loup

“ Built directly on the ground, the new chapel blends subtly and delicately with the landscape. The structure, which lies along the axis of the east-west valley and is open at each end, lets in plenty of natural light. Interpreting the traditional layout of protestant churches, the design creates a space whose horizontal and vertical dimensions vary via a series of origami-like folds, which give rhythm to the interior and exterior of the building. The folded volume generates a wide horizontal space at the entrance, before closing in and rising up to become vertical towards the centre of the chapel. Each fold in the facade reflects the light differently and thus emphasizes the progression and elongation of the volume. The structure punctuates the interior space, while creating an atmosphere conducive to reflection.”

chapel for the deaconesses of st-loup

chapel for the deaconesses of st-loup

chapel for the deaconesses of st-loup

chapel for the deaconesses of st-loup

chapel for the deaconesses of st-loup

Transparent plastic panels in the gable side facades, covered with fabric, allow natural light to enter the chapel. The frame of columns and diagonals resembles the structure of a stained-glass window.